A globally significant piece on UK platform MarketingTech titled “Instagram confirms it is hiding likes in the US: The agency and analyst perspective,” includes Brian Solis’ insights on the impact of the social media platform’s decision to – in some instances – begin hiding “likes” and other information from the followers of Instagram account members.

The piece quotes Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, who stated that while many users will be able to see the number of likes a particular post receives, the information won’t be shared with their followers. The motivation behind Instagram’s move? “It’s about young people. The idea is to try and depressurise Instagram, make it less of a competition, give people more space to focus on connecting with people that they love, things that inspire them,” Mosseri states, reflecting thoughts Solis develops in his bestselling book Lifescale: How to Live a More Creative, Productive and Happy Life.

Solis, an independent analyst, is quoted from a piece he wrote on LinkedIn. “Influencers after all, are individuals who built engaged communities around their personal brands and have learned how to land lucrative endorsements with advertisers to feature products in paid posts. Likes, to influencers and marketers, are also a form of currency, along with followers.” Solis added, “Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and the like reward users with fleeting social validation and variable intermittent rewards. This is really about attention economics. Our attention is a currency.”

Read MarketingTech Editor-in-Chief James Bourne’s editorial here.